Crue Cultivate A Flair For The Flamboyant

December 20, 1985|By Richard Defendorf, The Orlando Sentinel

As with most heavy metal bands, Motley Crue`s appeal is more visceral than intellectual. The group`s costumes, stage show and music intimate and imitate outrageous behavior. The fan club is called the Motley Crue S.I.N. Club.

When it comes right down to it, what goes on during a Motley Crue concert is illusion -- a wild, rebellious fantasy for metal fans who feel trapped in their high school classrooms five days a week. And it`s no surprise that one of the band`s biggest hits is its cover of Smokin` in the Boys Room, with the refrain ``Teacher don`t you fill me up with your rules, Everybody know that smokin` ain`t allowed in school.``

Motley Crue, which is scheduled to play Saturday at the Hollywood Sportatorium, performs such rock anthems with tight, hard precision, a sound that makes more concessions to blues-rock and ballads than typically are made by three-chord bone-crusher groups such as Accept, Judas Priest and Motorhead. Boys Room is a prime example of Motley Crue`s hard rock with heavy metal trappings.

But the Crue`s look is at least half the deal. Drummer Tommy Lee, guitarist Mick Mars, bassist Nikki Sixx and singer Vince Neil are not gauntlet-clad and spike-studded, not dressed to kill in typical heavy metal fashion. Instead, they dress to thrill in the manner of glam-and-glitter groups such as Kiss, Sweet and the New York Dolls. Motley Crue`s stage show is commensurately outre.

``We always wanted to give the kids a little bit more -- or a lot more -- than what they really were there to see,`` Neil said via telephone from a recent tour stop. ``Our philosophy has been: For a $10 ticket, give them a $50 show. That way it`s more of an event rather than just a concert.``

The group`s support work for its first two albums, Too Fast for Love and Shout at the Devil, was limited to clubs, small theaters and some opening dates for Ozzy Osbourne. The success of its third album, Theatre of Pain, has enabled Motley Crue to take its ``events`` to more 10,000-seat halls.

Part of the band`s musical message is, of course, party; the other part is don`t kill anyone doing it. In July, Neil pleaded guilty to charges of manslaughter and driving under the influence of alcohol, stemming from a December 1984 auto accident. Part of Neil`s sentence was 200 hours of benefit concerts and service work. The band has been crusading against drinking and driving since.

``If and/or when you drink -- don`t take the wheel . . .`` is printed on the Theatre of Pain cover. The potential for Motley Crue to do some public service while leaving its fans with a satisfying ring in their ears has not been lost on parents either, Neil said.

``Sure, you get concerned parents,`` he said of the band`s rowdy ways, ``but there`s a lot of parents I see come to our shows and like us.`` Neil includes his own family. ``They love it. They come to the shows when we play in LA, and I`ll fly `em to a couple shows here and there.``

It doesn`t seem likely, however, that Motley Crue will become family fare. ``Hopefully,`` Mick Mars was quoted in a press release, ``Mom and Dad will never like us.``

Underneath the hard-rock veneer, the four Crue members cultivate varied musical interests. True, Neil, 24, grew up on a heavy metal diet of ``Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple . . . you know, the same old stuff,`` and Sixx, 26, was raised on Alice Cooper, Sweet and Aerosmith. But the 29-year-old Mars is a devoted Jeff Beck listener, and Lee, 23, has developed tastes for funk and classical music.

What all four men have in common is a flair for the flamboyant.

``I was 16,`` Neil said, ``and I had never sung in a band or anything before then. But some guy just walked up to me in high school and said, `Hey, you want to sing for my band?,` and I go, `Yeah, sure. Why?` And he goes, `Well, you have the longest hair in high school.` I said, `OK, that`s a good enough reason for me.` ``

``We looked then like we do now,`` Neil said about the days before the Crue came together. ``But in everybody`s bands, we stuck out like sore thumbs because everybody was just a little bit different.``

It was Sixx who decided he wanted his own group. He had met Lee through a friend and Lee asked Neil, his old high school buddy, to join. All that was needed was a guitarist.

``There was an ad in a local paper that said, `Loud, rude, aggressive guitar player,` `` Neil said. ``They called him up and it was Mick. When the four of us got together, it was just like magic. We all fit together like a puzzle.``

(BU)

Motley Crue is scheduled to perform Saturday at the Hollywood Sportatorium, 16661 W. Hollywood Blvd., Pembroke Pines. Show time is 8 p.m. Autograph is the scheduled opening act. Tickets, $15, are available through BASS, 428-0917.